OBAMA USES the language of capitalism and the tools of government.

Obama has brilliantly framed the same vision the opposite way: We can't let China or Europe beat us on green energy or biotechnology! This touches our patriotic hearts and plays to our competitive spirit.

But it also undermines our free market and, in the long run, stultifies our economy. Rather than investors and entrepreneurs trying to anticipate and meet consumer demand, we now have GE or made-for-subsidy startups trying to lobby for and receive subsidies.

Lobby for and receive subsidies. That’s ‘new capitalism’ for you.